Reckless Uncertainty
by TotallyInTune
Summary: Finding out you're Dragonborn is never easy. Finding out you have to save the world is, well, downright impossible.


_The hardest part of ending is starting all again._

* * *

Feeling the world come to a bumpy stop, Merrill opened her eyes only to have them partly burned from the sun. Closing them before they even had a chance to take in the scenery. She groaned as the insistent bumping around wouldn't cease. Trying to tune out the rough movements she focus on her heart beating. The soft beat lulling her to sleep, but before she could even sink into blissful darkness, everything stopped.

There was no more moving and she could hear the sound of a horse sneezing and the murmurs of men beside her. That happened to wake her up quite quickly.

"Huh?" She said to no one in particular. The slight stinging in her eyes had subside and she could see the silhouette of a person was before her. Blinking away the blurriness so she could focus clearly on the person before her, Merrill could now see that it was a man. _A nord, by the looks of it. _She thought noticing how he wasenormous he was to her elven build.

She wasn't small by any means, but this man before her had the true tellings of a nord. Blonde fair hair, light eyes, and very large. As she looked around the cart noticing that the nord wasn't the only person with them. There was a small man next to the nord, his eyes were frantic darting from left to right, as if looking for an exit.

She felt something shift next to her, and looked over only to see another Nord, though this one also bound but his mouth was covered. _It might as well be Nords galore! I Haven't seen this many nords since raiding their camp site, about a month ago. Wonder why there are so many here? _

But why were his hands bound? She didn't give that thought until she was trying to wipe the crust from her eyes, and realizing she couldn't. _What_? She tried it again only to become conscious of the fact that it wasn't happening. Looking down at her bound hands did she began to panic. Cursing under her breath Merrill tried to undo the bound herself, the anxiety making her hands sweat.

"Stop trying lass, it won't work." Merrill looked up to the man across from her. Her eyebrows drew together and and she glared at him. As if she didn't already know that., and it was still worth the try. She ignored him when she noticed the death glare she sent him had no affect. But her hands went limp in her arms anyway.

_How did I even end up in this mess? The last thing I remember was...what was it?_ She could remember everything from the day she was born, but she couldn't remember how she got here. This was not good. Her heart rate kicked up a notch and her armpits were feeling moist but she had to keep calm. The men were talking to each other, the one who had spoken to Merrill seemed to be consoling the smaller man, who was no doubt sweating as much as Merrill.

Her panic increased tenfold when she realized they were nearing a small town. This area of land was foreign to her. _What the hell did I do to get in this mess? I'm pretty sure I didn't kill anyone this time. Or did I? Never mind that's not important. And since there is a knot in the back of my head, I either fell from a tree or someone took a blow to my poor head._

Her train of thought stopped as she heard the Nord murmur something about Stormcloaks, but in her state of mind nothing got through to Merrill. As they rolled through the village a young boy was pointing at specifically at her, the boy's father came out and murmured something in his ear. The lad's shoulders sagged and he walked back in the small home. His father on the other hand, was now looking at Merrill, and if looks could kill she would be turned into ash this very second.

Averting her eyes quickly Merrill's noticed the small crowd of people up head of her. Some where wearing red and liver armor, imperials undoubtedly, along with people of all races wearing the same ragged cloth she was, some wearing armor. And in front of them was the Dradric king himself. Merrill using her mouth started tearing at her bonds, at the sight of him. He was a headsman holding a mighty axe in one of his hand supporting its weight as if it was nothing.

_Okay...maybe I did kill someone._

Merrill's only focus was the headsman and then the little stone slab that had wet dark blood on it spilling on the side. Her blood turned to ice. The dirty rags that kept her hands tied fell out of her mouth. The carriage came to a stop and so did her heart.

_Yup, I definitely killed someone. _

The others hopped out of the cart and soon it was only her in it. The man standing before her had kind, sad eyes and was holding a piece of parchment in his hands along with a quill. His brown eyes beckoned her forward and she obliged, sliding out of the cart she stood a couple feet before him. Her hands shook slightly, and the rough cobblestone felt cold while wearing the thin boots on her feet.

"You prisoner who are you?" He asked in a kind deep voice.

"I am Merrill Rumir." Merrill could hear her voice shaking a little and hope he couldn't hear it.

He scribbled her name on the paper. "Not many wood elves choose to come to Skyrim."

"Believe me it wasn't my choice." There was a short moment when he looked into her eyes and saw the hysteria no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

"Captain," He turned to the woman beside him in full battle armor. "What should we do she's not on the list."

The Captain turned to look at Merrill, there was something cruel in her stare that was unnerving. She gave her a nasty smile, "Forget the first. She goes to the block."

Merrill's entire frame started quivering and a cold sweat broke out all over her body. Fear ran deep in her veins and a sudden hatred for the Captain. But the woman was no longer paying attention to her.

"By your orders. Captain." The way his voiced her rank told Merrill that he didn't have much love for his fellow Captain anymore than Merrill knew why she was here. The woman walked away and over to the other men who came off the same cart that she did. Brown eyes watched her face for any signs of fear and there were plenty to be found. "I'm sorry. We'll make sure your remains are returned to Valenwood."

Merrill's body was filled with the sudden longing to be back in the carriage asleep. She knew this wasn't even fair! Merrill's name wasn't on the list and seeing as she didn't remember any of the trees or landscape, she knew that she had never been here before. But how could she plea for help when no one cared, and the ones that could couldn't help? Unshed tears shown in her eyes at the thought of dying so young.

"Follow the Captain, prisoner." When Merrill looked up to meet his gaze he was looking at the paper with intent. She looked around for the Captain and found her taunting a prisoner. The woman stopped as soon as she sensed Merrill staring at her and started walking towards the headsmen. Merrill followed her slowly keeping at least a five foot distance, Merrill stopped walking and stood next to a man wearing blue colored armor. He was staring intently at the man she rode in the carriage with, the man with his mouth bound. An older looking man in imperial armor walked and stood in his covered face.

"Ulfric Stormcloak. Some here in Helgan call you a hero. But a hero doesn't use a power like the Voice to murder his king and usurp his throne." His voice was filled with such venom that even Merrill cringed at the sound of it. Ulfric said something at the man, but it only came out as a muffed grunt. Merrill assumed that the man talking to Ulfric was a general, by the way the other imperials looked at him with respect. "You started this war, plunged Skyrim into chaos, and now the Empire is going to put you down and restore the peace."

There was a ominous sound that rang softly through the air. Every person including Merrill froze at the sound. _That's not a good sound. If there was a wise person here they would untie me and allow me to escape with them right this second...I don't see anyone. Looks like i'm going to die here. _Even with the understanding that was death was coming, Merrill still tried to hold on to a fragment of hope.

"What was that?" She turned her head to see who voiced the question. It was the brown-eyed man with the soft deep voice. Luckily he didn't notice she was staring at him.

The general looked in his direction. "Its nothing. Carry on." His command seemed to calm his subordinates, but anyone who wasn't under his authority seemed to have a little more fear in their eyes.

"Yes. General Tullius." The female Captain answered enthusiastically, making Merrill gag. _Looks like the Captain has a crush, an old crush. _Merrill noticed that she was right about him being a general, even if he was an old general. As Tullius walked away, Captain walked forward and stood next to an old woman. _She probably has a fetish for old people. _Merrill thought with a small smile.

The old women started raising her arms and praying, but all Merrill could focus on was how shinny that axe was even though it was covered in blood. She tried to get her mind off death but every time the headsman moved, even if it was changing his stance of rolling his shoulders she couldn't shake off the fear.

"For the love of Talos, shut up and lets get this over with." The man beside her cut off the priest and stopped chanting whatever she was saying. The soldier walked up to the block.

"As you wish." The priest still had a calm voice even though she probably wanted to tear his head off.

"Come on I haven't got all day." The soldier said with irritation. _Was this fool in a hurry to die? How could he do this with so much courage when I was wetting my clothes. _He was pushed to his feet by the Captain, the block in front of him. "My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials. Can you say the same?" Merrill looked at his face in disturbance when he gave a smile to no one in particular.

The Captain put her knee against his back. She pushed him down onto the cool stone slab. His head was facing the opposite direction, facing the brute with an axe. The headsmen used both hands when he lifted up his axe, everything seemed to go in slow motion as he swung down. Merrill closed her eyes before the axe made contact with his head. The sound of a head falling in the basket would haunt her forever.

Merrill open her eyes in time to see the captain slide his body off the stone as if he was a dirty rag, and she couldn't use her hands to do the job. From behind Merrill, she hear a woman yell, but she couldn't turn her head. The dread in her body felt as if she was filled with stones. Other voices rang in her head as she focused on the axe before her. The blood was dripping from the sharp tips.

"Next, the wood elf." Merrill looked around hoping to see another elf but she was the only one. The terror from the bodiless head and the river of blood flowing freely between the stones, had her frozen on the spot. There was an eerie sound coming from every direction. I_t sounds like a growl. But what could be making that noise? _Every head turned to see where it was coming from. Merrill was staring wordlessly at blood covered slab, wondering if she ever did anything to deserve this.

"I **said**, next Prisoner."

Suddenly there was a hand on her back gently pushing her forward. "To the brick, prisoner. Nice and easy." She didn't turn to see what hand was pushing her, because she already knew. Merrill wanted to scream, she truly did but her mouth felt as if it was filled with cotton. Her body started moving on its on accord without her even being consciousness of the fact the her head felt separate from her body.

Soon she stood before the stone just as the soldier did, only she didn't even feel half as brave as him. The brown-eyed man tried to look away from her, but as Merrill stared at the man the emptiness of her eyes caused him to look back into her amber gaze. She felt the knees of the Captain push her down, and yet she didn't want the last thing she saw to be the head of a fearless man. Instead she kept her desolate stare on the brown-eyed man before her, unaware of the guilt her look gave him. Guilt that he was allowing this to happen, guilt that he let a man die before him because he was on a different side of a war.

Merrill was now laying her head facing away from everything except the knees of the headsman. The right side of her face was now coated in warm sticky blood staining her face. Her breathing was erratic and the world was become dim as she saw the axe swing towards her neck. She didn't notice the flying beast right before her eyes, nor did she hear a word anyone said, Merrill was fading from this world before she even took her last breath.

Before the axe had struck its target the creature had landed on top of a tower in all its glory, and let lose a shout so powerful it almost frighted Merrill to death. Her eyes opened and took in a glimpse of a dragon. Dark ebony scales covering his skin, magnificent wings expanded before her blocking the sun out of her face. Then she saw his eyes. They were intelligent, maybe even more than Merrill herself. They both made eye contact with each other and the dragon let out another violent shout, this one knocked her off the stone slab.

"Guards get the townspeople to safety!"

"Keep your eyes on it."

"Hey, wood elf. Get up girl, the gods won't give us another chance!" This was the voice she paid attention to. Strong hands picked her up and dragged her behind him, while chaos was everywhere. There were fire balls hitting the ground in every direction, and she knew if he wasn't guiding her that Merrill would have been dead because of them.

"This way!" He said leading Merrill to a tower in front of them. She was blind to everything else, the towns people screaming, sounds of burning men, even her own heartbeat. She kept her feet moving only because he held her. They were sprinting across the field when Merrill tripped over something and landed face first on top of hard stone.

"Oww." She tried to lift herself up to find her savior when she was picked up and dragged across the the short distance. Upon hearing a door close, only then could Merrill find the strength to open her eyes.

"What is that thing? Could the legends be true?" The urgent tone in the man's voice alarmed Merrill.

"Legends don't burn down villages." A different man spoke, his low-pitched voice gave Merrill an odd feeling. She couldn't quite place it at the moment, so it left her mind as soon as it came.

"We need to move, now!" Another voice spoke, the one from before. Merrill felt someone grab her arm and she winced as it stung something terrible. The sound of cloth ripping turned her gaze to the man she rode in the carriage with. His face was dirty with blood and ash, but his eyes were still as light as the blue sky. He gave her a smile.

"This is going to hurt." Before she could question why Merrill's arm was jerked straight, she heard a large pop and groaned. She felt a piece of cloth being wrapped around her forearm, and hissed as it burned her open wound.

"What was that for?" She said discomfort evident in her voice.

"You have a cut the size of a dagger on your arm." He made a firm knot with the cloth and helped Merrill sit up.

"Thank you...er." Merrill felt her face heat up in embarrassment. " I don't think I've ever heard your name."

"Ralof." He gave her a soft smile.

"We need to get out of here!" She saw a man pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. He stopped as a thought came to mind. "Up through the tower, lets go!" The man started walking for the stairs, a soldier helped a young woman up and became her crutch. Two large arms helped her stand up. Once she was on her own feet a hand was placed around her waist. Merrill turned and before she could could tell Ralof to get his hand off her, he was dragging her along again.

But Merrill did notice that she liked how his hand felt. _There's that feeling again! What is it? _Merrill felt a slight tingle in her entire body while his arm was around her. Ralof was the first person up the stairs and so was Merrill even though she dreaded the fact.

"With me up the tower!" Ralof yelled in Merrill's ear as if she couldn't hear him where he was standing now. _Does he know elves have good hearing? What does he think these pointy ears are for, decoration?_ She ran up the stairs beside him but before they made it to the top, a side of the wall was knocked away by the head of a dragon. The dragons eyes met Merrill's again and a small stare-off began. Merrill was taken aback how its only focus was her, when she averted her eyes the dragon blew out a inferno from his mouth.

Merrill jerked Ralof back before he was burnt dragon food and shielded her eyes from the light the fire caused, and the heat of the fire.

"Toor...Shul!" _Did the dragon just speak? _She clicked her tongue to make sure she could hear and she could. But that didn't explain how a dragon could talk. It's head disappeared and Ralof walked forward before she could stop him.

"Its gone." He said. Merrill walked behind him and looked out, making sure she was safe for at least a moment. Ralof beckoned her closer to him and when she was close to him his hand was pressed against her stomach as if she would fall out of the tower as soon as he let go. "See the inn on the other side?" Behind all the smoke and fire Merrill could see a half destroyed inn on the other side. She nodded her head. "Jump through the roof and keep going!"

"What!" Merrill shrieked, causing Ralof to wince slightly. "Do you want me to die! Was this whole saving me from dying, just a plan to kill me later on? Is this because I glared at you on the carriage? If so, I'm sorry!"

Ralof gave her a look the told Merrill that it wasn't any of those things. "You will be fine, just a leap and I'll be right behind you when the rest of us can follow. NOW GO!" He had to compete his voice against the sound of fire hitting the ground. Merrill's shoulders relaxed at the thought that she wasn't going through this alone.

_Okay. This wasn't the plan for today!_

Merrill covered her eyes from the smoke, took a couple steps backward and ran as fast as she could. Her scream was heard all throughout the skyrim..figuratively. Merrill hit the wooden floor hard stomach first, and opened her eyes happily to find out she was alive.

"I'm alive!" Merrill told herself cheerfully. After standing up, she walked through the burning inn, tripping over damaged furniture and debris. She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and almost fell through a hole in the floor. _How am I going to jump this?_ She wondered.

Steadying her self against the wooden planks, Merrill gathered her courage and jumped through the hole landing on her feet this time. She surveyed her body for any bumps or bruises, and smiled when she found none.

Walking slowing out of the damaged inn, Merrill narrowly missed a flaming piece of wood from the inn. After getting out of the barn, she heard the voice of her brown-eyed imperial.

"Don't look up just focus on me. You can do it!" He was coaxing a child out of the line of fire. Merrill realized that this was the little boy from earlier who pointed at her. "Haming, you need to get over here. Now!"

Seeing as the boy was moving anytime soon, Merrill ran towards the boy and grabbed him by the side. She carried him over to where the brown-eyed man was.

"Thank you, I was sure he wasn't going to move." He put a hand on her shoulder in thanks.

"It was nothing really, with all that's going on right now." The little boy was squirming in her arms. That was when she realized that he was still sideways in her arms. Setting him down gently she ruffled his hair. "You're more brave than I am, lad. If it was me I would've been dust."

His straightened his posture and puffed out his little bit. "It was nothing."

Merrill gave him a small smile. There was another man next to the small group and, he was staring at her in thanks for saving the young boy.

"Gods, everyone get back!" The dragon came back as if he knew where Merrill was. He let out another blast of fire trying to wipe out the small group. They ran to the right where cover was, the dragon flew away, but Merrill knew that he would come back for her. The only question was why?

"You're still alive, good. You need to follow me if you want it to stay that way." Merrill still didn't know his name and it was very frustrating.

"I do want to stay alive, but I need to know the name of my companion first." Merrill's left foot was tapping the ground softly in exasperation. _We need to move, and I asked one question. Not the entire history of Talos. _

"Hadvar." It a nice to know his name, even if she did lean it a little late.

"Its nice to finally put a name to a face Hadvar. I'm Merrill, if you haven't forgotten it."

"Merrill." Hadvar repeated. He turned to Haming and the other man. " Gunner take care of the boy. I have to find General Tullius and join the defense." The young lad ran over to Gunner and stood safely behind didn't know if the boy was going to make it out of here alive, and that worry her. _Why am I thinking about a boy when I need to worry about my self?_ Merrill walked over to the young boy and whispered in his ear. If Haming made it out of this place alive and if they met again she would know my the words shared between them.

"Be safe, lad." Haming nodded to Merrill. He had a determined look on his young face. Merrill walked over to where Hadvar was, and told him she was ready to get going.

"Gods, guide you both." Gunner spoke in a solemn voice. He grabbed gunner my his arm and they took off in another direction. Merrill didn't look away until they were out of her sight.

"Let's go, we haven't got all day." Merrill and Hadvar set of in the direction of where the once was. Running past the wreckage and trying not to get burned from the flames, Merrill had a hard time keeping up with Hadvar. They made it to a stone wall, once Merrill caught up with him she tried to walk past him only to get yanked against the wall. "Stay close to the wall!"

Before she could question why, the ebony dragon came out again. Hadvar kept Merrill close while the dragon sniffed the air. _Looking for me, probably. _The dragon might've smelled Merrill or became angry of the fact that he couldn't reach her. Another blaze came out of his mouth in the other direction.

"Wha-" She stopped her voice when a solider spoke in the distance.

"General Tullius, over here!" _Maybe he isn't really after me. If he's going after general Tullius. _Merrill let out a sigh of relief, while Hadvar was debating how to save his General. The dragon flew away giving them a chance to run.

"Quickly, follow me!" Merrill kept close behind Hadvar, trying not to trip over the dead bodies in there path. They were making their way out of what used to be a house , when Merrill was hit with a blaze of fire. Luckily she wasn't directly in the fire, but she hissed none the less when her left arm was singed. There was a group of soldiers attacking the dragon, mages were shooting fire balls and the melee fighters were waiting for the dragon to land.

The dragon said more words and Merrill seemed to be the only one that heard them. Following closely behind Hadvar they dogged soldiers putting up a fight and villagers fleeing for their life. She ran into Hadvar's back, he was yelling to someone and Merrill turned to see who it was.

Ralof was standing before her breathing heavily and was shouting just as furious as Hadvar. Merrill could sense that there was a history between the both of them, with their weapons drawn it looked as if they were going to start fighting with the dragon still attacking the town. Before they actually attacked each other, Hadvar relaxed his stance.

"Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde!" Hadvar's voice could barely be heard over all the noise surrounding them. Then the two men ran past each other seeming to forget that Merrill existed. Ralof went to a door on the right of Merrill, while Hadvar went up ahead to another door. _Men are just like kid's sometimes! In a time like this who would go into two different doors to the same building! _

Standing there frozen to the ground, Merrill didn't know who to follow, which way was the right one, or if she was even going to survive this.


End file.
